Turkey beset by earthquakes and Clinton

by a member of the US International Action Centre, from Ankara

US President Bill Clinton went to Turkey to attend the November 18 Istanbul 
meeting of the so-called Organisation for Security and Cooperation in 
Europe.

In honour of his visit, riot police brutally attacked a protest rally here 
on November 15 in the main square of the country's capital.

The demonstrators were opposing the vast US presence in Turkey and the 
International Monetary Fund's (IMF) control of the Turkish economy.

About 200 protesters had barely assembled in Kizilay Meydani Square when 
500 cops with clubs, shields and full body armour swept through the area, 
arresting at least 100 people and beating and clubbing many more.

Demonstrators re-assembled several times as the battle moved down Mustafa 
Kemal Boulevard, while those arrested forced open the police-bus window to 
chant "Down with US imperialism!" and "Yankee go home, this country is 
ours!"

Police later surrounded the offices of the Party for Socialist Power, which 
organised the rally, and arrested several more people.

Clinton arrived in Turkey just after a 7.2 earthquake struck the Duvce 
region near Istanbul. At least 700 people are known to be dead. Thousands 
more are injured and homeless.

As in the monster quake that killed tens of thousands in Turkey in August, 
many who died could have lived. Most of the deaths were caused by the 
collapse of cheaply built apartment blocks, many built on unsuitable land 
by greedy contractors.

The homeless of the Duvce region will join at least 200,000 people still 
living in tents since the August 17 catastrophe. The Government promised 
them prefabricated housing before winter. But the cold weather has already 
arrived.

Over a thousand coal miners from Zonguldak near the Black Sea hurried to 
Duvce the night of the quake to help rescue people.

When I talked to them they had been working 14 hours without food or rest. 
Several said they were not given adequate equipment to dig through the 
rubble.

The Party for Socialist Power cancelled anti-Clinton protests planned for 
Istanbul to help the earthquake victims. Among those mobilised to help were 
homeless workers from Nazim Kent.

This is a tent city named after the Turkish revolutionary poet Nazim 
Hikmet, who lived in exile in the Soviet Union until his death.

Meanwhile the US-controlled IMF this month imposed devastating new 
conditions on Turkey. These include cutting social spending, limiting wage 
rises to well below the rate of inflation and raising the retirement age by 
10 years.

At least half of Turkey's income is used to pay interest to Western banks. 
It also buys weapons from the United States at close to a billion dollars a 
year.

Among the IMF's victims are the self-sacrificing miners of Zonguldak, 
thousands of whom have lost their jobs to cutbacks demanded by the IMF.